反避稅行動 美國爲何執行雙重標準

PARIS — Journalists have done their job, again, with another enormous leak of documents outing a global list of rich and powerful people who hid their wealth in offshore companies.

巴黎——藉着又一批海量文件的外泄，記者們再度克盡職責，揭露了世界各地利用離岸公司隱藏財產的富豪與政要的名單。

This time, prompted by the Panama Papers, several European governments have followed up with new measures intended to rip away the veil of secrecy that is costing them billions of dollars in tax revenues.

這一回，在“巴拿馬文件”的推動下，數個歐洲國家的政府跟進新措施，試圖揭開使它們損失無數稅收的隱祕機制的面紗。

“Populist outrage doesn’t by itself collect a single extra pound or dollar in tax or put a single criminal in jail,” said George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer in Britain, at a news conference on Thursday in Washington.

“光是羣情激憤，連一個子兒的稅收也討不回來，也不會有哪怕一個犯人因此被關進監獄，”週二時，英國財政大臣喬治·奧斯本(George Osborne)在華盛頓的一場記者會上如此表示。

To that end, the biggest economies in the European Union — Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain — announced a plan to automatically share information about the true, or “beneficial,” owners of shell companies and overseas trusts.

爲了達成目標，英國、法國、德國、意大利和西班牙這歐盟五大經濟體，針對空殼公司與海外資產信託的真正持有人——即“實益”所有人——宣佈了一項資訊自動分享計劃。

This is good news for the global campaign to expose the ill-gotten gains of the corrupt and the secretly held wealth of tax evaders who benefit from a system that rewards anonymity.

一些逃稅者受益於一種獎勵匿名的金融體系，透過貪腐與藏匿財富賺取不當利益。對於致力於讓這些不義之財曝光的全球倡議活動來說，該計劃是個好消息。

But there is one major player that is coming up short, and that is the United States, which in 2015 ranked third, behind Switzerland and Hong Kong, in a financial secrecy index published by the Tax Justice Network, a nonprofit organization based in Washington.

不過，在這整局棋中有個關鍵的角色表現得不盡如人意，那就是美國。2015年，美國在非營利組織稅收正義網(Tax Justice Network)公佈的金融保密指數中排名第三，僅次於瑞士和香港。

The Obama administration has recently taken steps to require banks to check the identities of clients setting up companies and to track the ownership of expensive real estate.

奧巴馬政府近來已展開行動，要求銀行驗證欲建立公司的客戶身份、追查高價房地產的所有人。

Resistance to greater corporate transparency is still strong at the state level, however, where companies and corporations are registered.

然而，加強金融透明度一事，仍遭到負責註冊公司企業的州政府的強烈抗拒。

Attention has focused on Delaware, Wyoming and Nevada, which aggressively market tax advantages for offshore companies. But in fact, full disclosure of ownership is not required in any of the 50 states.

其中的主要焦點在特拉華、懷俄明與內華達。這三州都十分積極地推銷離岸公司在當地享有的稅賦優惠。不過事實上，在美國的50個州里，沒有任何一州要求財產所有人充分公開身份。

This has created an enormous black hole not only for tax inspectors but also for law enforcement officials who “can’t follow the money,” said Tom Cardamone, managing director of Global Financial Integrity, a research and advocacy group based in Washington. “What we have in place is compete secrecy, and it is secrecy that is the problem,” he said.

華盛頓研究暨倡議團體全球金融誠信組織(Global Financial Integrity)的執行主任湯姆‧卡達蒙(Tom Cardamone)表示，這不只給稅務稽查員帶來極大阻礙 ，也讓執法官員無法“追蹤現金流”。“我們現有的制度是完全保密的，而這種保密性就是問題所在，”卡達蒙說。

A bipartisan bill to make the states require disclosure of ownership is now before Congress, but it has stalled.

一份讓各州要求揭露財產所有人身份的提案已經送入美國國會。該法案由來自兩黨的人員共同提交，目前卻遭到擱置。

Opposition comes from the American Bar Association, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a less-known but powerful lobby, the National Association of Secretaries of State. That final group fears a loss of revenue for state budgets if more transparency is required, said Robert Palmer, campaign director at Global Witness, an anticorruption organization.

提案的反對壓力來自美國律師協會(American Bar Association)、美國商會(U.S. Chamber of Commerce)，以及一個較不知名但頗具影響力的遊說團體：全美州務卿協會(National Association of Secretaries of State)。反貪腐組織全球見證(Global Witness)的倡議主任羅伯特·帕爾默(Robert Palmer)表示，州務卿協會擔憂的是，州級預算收入可能會因爲對財務透明度的要求提高而流失。

“Passing legislation in the U.S. is challenging,” he said.

“要在美國通過法案是很大的挑戰，”帕爾默說。

Failure to respond to the worldwide clamor for financial accountability looks hypocritical from afar, considering the United States’ aggressive extraterritorial pursuit of foreign companies that violate its Foreign Corrupt Practices law and its demands that foreign banks provide information about accounts held by American citizens.

從外人的眼光看來，考慮到美國是如何積極行使治外法權以聲討違反該國《反海外腐敗法》(Foreign Corrupt Practices Act)的外國公司，又是如何要求國外銀行提供美國公民的帳戶資料的，這個國家未能迴應全球對金融問責性的大聲疾呼就顯得頗爲虛僞了。

“Though the U.S. has been a pioneer in defending itself from foreign secrecy jurisdictions it provides little information in return to other countries, making it a formidable, harmful and irresponsible secrecy jurisdiction,” according to a Tax Justice Network report.

稅收正義網在報告中指出：“雖然美國在海外帶頭保護自身利益不被金融不透明的制度所侵害，但其他國家卻幾乎不能獲得它提供的資訊作爲回報。這使得國在祕密資產方面成爲一個難以應付、害人不淺又不負責任的管轄地。”

Though legislation in the United States has faltered, other countries began moving ahead with the creation of registries of corporate beneficial owners even before the Panama Papers came to light. Such a registry will be available to the public in Britain on June 30, while national registries required by the European Union will be ready by 2017, although access to their information will be more restricted.

雖然美國的立法進程遭受了挫折，但其他一些國家已經開始取得進展，甚至在巴拿馬文件曝光前便已着手建立企業實益擁有人登記制度。從6月30日開始，英國將把此類登記信息向公衆開放，歐盟要求的全國性登記將於2017年準備就緒，不過對登記信息的查詢會受到較爲嚴格的限制。

Pressure is now growing on Britain to force its overseas territories — like the British Virgin Islands, which is home, on paper, to more than half of the companies revealed by the Panama leak — to follow suit, a subject sure to dominate an anticorruption summit meeting in London next month.

目前，英國面臨着與日俱增的壓力，希望它去強制自己的海外屬地——比如英屬維爾京羣島，被巴拿馬文件曝光的公司，有一半以上在名義上設在該地——採取類似舉措，而這必然成爲將於下月在倫敦舉行的一場反腐峯會的主要議題。

Transparency advocates hope similar pressure will build in the United States to shine a light on what Mr. Osborne called “those hiding spaces, those dark corners of the global financial system” right in its own backyard.

支持提高透明度的人士希望類似的壓力也能在美國積聚起來，迫使它點一盞燈，照亮奧斯本所說的“全球金融體系之中那些存在於美國自家後院的隱祕空間，那些黑暗的角落。”

As Mr. Palmer says, “I don’t think we should have to rely on journalists.”

正如帕爾默所言，“我認爲我們不應該只能依賴新聞記者。”